Despite numbers, Uggla feels better at plate

One way that has shown up is in his strikeouts. Uggla has struck out seven times in 35 plate appearances since his return, and four of those came in his first two games back against the Indians – when he was admittedly anxious.

When Uggla underwent his eye surgery Aug. 16, he was averaging a strikeout every 3.15 at-bats (since it’s been once every five at-bats).

“That’s the biggest thing for me,” said Uggla, who is eighth in the majors with 153 strikeouts. “I’ve been battling that all season and now that I’m feeling confident out there that I’m going to hit the ball hard somewhere and get a hit. That doesn’t even like enter my mind, you know ‘Oh man, I need to put the ball in play this time.’ One less thing to worry about. I’m still going to strike out but hopefully not at the rate I was doing it.”

Now Uggla said he feels like he’s just missing pitches, when he fouls off or pops up.

“That’s a good sign,” Uggla said. “This is what I needed to do in September is get my confidence back, get comfortable in the box again, take good swings, good aggressive swings, and I’ve done that so far.”

He got no better example than Wednesday in the fifth inning against Mets right-hander Dillon Gee. He fouled off a 1-2 slider – a pitch he had struggled to see all season - before singling to left field on the next pitch.

“I fouled off a front-door slider that I couldn’t even pull the trigger on because I would freeze on it earlier,” Uggla said.